The steering assemblies of various industrial vehicles such as, but not limited to, off-highway trucks, on-highway trucks, wheel dozers, and wheel loaders, may include steering components that are operably coupled together via ball studs and pin-cylinders. Over the life time of the industrial vehicle, for example, a tapered ball stud or tapered pin-cylinder may become wedged and/or corroded into its corresponding tapered bore. As such, the tapered ball stud or tapered pin-cylinder may be difficult to remove during servicing of the steering assembly of the industrial vehicle.
Some prior techniques to remove or separate the tapered ball stud from its corresponding tapered bore have involved conventional industrial floor jacks positioned underneath the industrial vehicle. With such techniques, however, the weight of the industrial vehicle may potentially drop against the industrial floor jack after the tapered ball stud breaks loose from its corresponding tapered bore. In such instances, for example, the steering box, steering arms, and frame lugs, as well as other components, of the steering assembly may bend and become damaged resulting in increased downtime of the industrial vehicle due to repairing or replacing the damaged components.
Other techniques for ball stud separation or removal have also been attempted. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,482 ('482 patent) discloses a tool for loosening a seized ball joint in a motor vehicle. The tool of the '482 patent includes a handle and a jaw having a wedged shaped seat for positioning onto a ball joint. With the tool in position with the ball joint, a hammer is used to strike the handle to loosen the ball joint. While the tool of the '482 patent loosens the ball joint, the potential for bending of other vehicle components during the loosening process may still be present. Accordingly, improvements in removing tapered ball studs or pin-cylinders from their corresponding tapered bores without causing damage to other components continue to be sought.